身份案 06一位女性委托者(2)

Again a startled look came over the somewhat vacuous¹ face of Miss Mary Sutherland.

玛丽·萨瑟兰小姐的有些茫然若失的脸上又一次出现了惊讶的神色。

"Yes, I did bang out of the house," she said,

她说："是的，我是突然地出来的。

"for it made me angry to see the easy way in which Mr. Windibank--that is, my father--took it all.

因为看到温迪班克先生--就是我的父亲--对这事漠不关心，使我非常气愤。

He would not go to the police, and he would not go to you, and so at last,

他不肯去报告警察，也不肯到您这里来，最后，

as he would do nothing and kept on saying that there was no harm done, it made me mad,

由于他什么都不干，只是不断地说，'没事，没事'，使我十分冒火，

and I just on with my things and came right away to you."

我穿上外衣，就立即赶来找您。"

"Your father," said Holmes, "your stepfather, surely, since the name is different."

"你的父亲，"福尔摩斯说，"一定是你的继父，因为不是同姓。"

"Yes, my stepfather. I call him father, though it sounds funny, too, for he is only five years and two months older than myself."

"不错，是我的继父。我叫他父亲，尽管听起来很可笑，因为他比我只大五岁零两个月。"

"And your mother is alive?" "Oh, yes, mother is alive and well.

"你母亲还健在吗？""是的，我母亲还健在。

I wasn't best pleased, Mr. Holmes, when she married again so soon after father's death,

福尔摩斯先生，在父亲刚死不久，她就重新结婚了，

and a man who was nearly fifteen years younger than herself.

而且男的比她几乎年轻十五岁，这使我很不高兴。

Father was a plumber² in the Tottenham Court Road,

我父亲是在托特纳姆法院路做管子生意的。

and he left a tidy business behind him, which mother carried on with Mr. Hardy³, the foreman;

他遗留下来一个相当大的企业，这个企业由母亲和工头哈迪先生继续经营，

but when Mr. Windibank came he made her sell the business, for he was very superior, being a traveller in wines.

可是，温迪班克先生一来就迫使母亲出卖了这个企业，因为他是个推销酒的旅行推销员，地位很优越。

They got 4700 pounds for the goodwill⁴ and interest, which wasn't near as much as father could have got if he had been alive."

他们出卖商誉连同利息，共得四千七百英镑。假如父亲还活着，他得到的钱数会比这个多得多。"

1 vacuous   

adj.空的，漫散的，无聊的，愚蠢的

参考例句：

• Male models are not always so vacuous as they are made out to be.男模特儿并不总像人们说的那样愚蠢。
• His eyes looked dull,almost vacuous.他看上去目光呆滞，茫然若失。

2 plumber   

n.(装修水管的)管子工

参考例句：

• Have you asked the plumber to come and look at the leaking pipe?你叫管道工来检查漏水的管子了吗？
• The plumber screwed up the tap by means of a spanner.管子工用板手把龙头旋紧。

3 hardy   

adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的

参考例句：

• The kind of plant is a hardy annual.这种植物是耐寒的一年生植物。
• He is a hardy person.他是一个能吃苦耐劳的人。

4 goodwill   

n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉

参考例句：

• His heart is full of goodwill to all men.他心里对所有人都充满着爱心。
• We paid ￡10,000 for the shop,and ￡2000 for its goodwill.我们用一万英镑买下了这家商店，两千英镑买下了它的信誉。